Thursday, June 30, 2011

The Sunday Punchers is a blend of celtic pirate folk rock. Summed up pretty easily huh?

Traditional Irish music as well as deep rooted South African folk have a lot in common in terms of music styles. A couple of guys, some from Irish/Scottish heritage and others from their deep rooted Afrikaans heritage decided to do away with their noisy punk rock riffs and look a little deeper into their roots.... Combining it with the punk rock and roll they have grown up on as a staple diet of their daily lives. T.S.P. began with a few teething problems at first as a new band. Firstly there was the quest to find suitable members who would share the same interest as to where T.S.P. was going. This above all proved to be the most difficult task as most young people today have forgotten their roots and ancestory and where their heritage has come from over the years.

Mutiny abound ye scurvey land lubbers!!

After over a year of patience and almost giving up, some of the lads decided to give it one more shot which eventualy paid off.

Clint, Gene and Michiel showed up on T.S.P.'s door step foaming at their mouths. Too much Guinness or just plaincraziness? We will never know. One week of hard finger bleeding practice with the new lads, we all had a feeling something was missing. It was out there, stuck in the briggs of a ship somewhere out at sea. As the winds changed towards us we could hear it, the soothing wail of the most beautiful Violin to grace a mans ears.

The beautiful Miss Ankia flew into T.S.P. barely a week before the first show. Her talent and skill at Violin has welled up many a teary eye at T.S.P.'s practices with the lads.

Paddy McHugh is a young, talented and original singer songwriter from East Coast Australia. Raised in Tamworth and steeped in country music tradition, Paddy delivers his own honest, intelligent and unique style of Australian country music, free of the contrivances usually associated with an artist from the country music capital. Paddy sings songs from his experience as a professional rambling musician, telling the stories of his colourful past and those of the many people who have crossed his path along the way. The songs are honest and effortlessly delivered with overwhelming integrity that cannot be ignored or dismissed.

In Paddy can be seen shades of such artists as Slim Dusty, Tom T. Hall, Steve Earle and Bob Dylan yet Paddy has a distinct individuality that sets him apart and leaves him standing on his own two feet singing his heart out.

The Goldminers are Paddy’s mates and co-conspirators from the road who have used their incredible talents to provide the perfect backdrop for his voice and stories and help him deliver his smooth live show. Paddy and The Goldminers are a force to be reckoned with and will be no doubt drifting your way soon. If you like your music with integrity, imagination and class go no further than “Paddy McHugh and The Goldminers”.

Different. Not your Paddypunk normal band, but quite good. Icewagon FLU, a band which is not easy to classify, has re-arranged some Celtic standards and the result is amazing. You should forget your prejudices and have a listen.

What have they done? They have taken some “worn-out” songs, added some traditional tunes, used instruments such as the uileann pipes, banjo and whistles and written their own arrangements.

A quick overview of the tracks:

- When you listen to the beginning of “South Australia” you feel that you’re listening to U2. Then, the uileann pipes tune fits perfectly.

- The next song is a modern rendition of “Nancy Whiskey”.

- “Hills of Connemara” is another stand out. A Caribbean sounding guitar great whistle and this time the tune is a polka, “John Ryan’s”

- “Galway Races”. It also has a small Reggae touch just before “The Kesh” jig. Excellent banjo and fiddle.

- More uileann pipes, whistle and a funky guitar on “Waxie’s Dargle”. The guys sing as if it was a rap song. You should love it.

- The next track, “Swindon Snake Charmer” starts à la “Kick it Over/Justice Tonight” and features epic vocals and programming.

- Another interesting point is how the band shifts rythms. “Follow Me Up to Carlow” is fast paced song, but at the same time it has a slow paced reggae rhythm.

- The uileann pipes are the main instrument in the next couple of songs “Boston Harbour” and “I’m a Man you don’t meet Everyday”. Probably some of the best material of the album.

- The title of the last track of the album is “Tecno Jig”: a bodhrán and a whistle, then some keyboards. My first impression was that it was a track from an old Chieftains album. I was waiting for the harp and the fiddle ;-)

If somebody asked me if I would buy a CD by a Celtic punk band playing only covers of traditional songs, the answer would probably be “No”. But if somebody asked me if I would buy a CD by Icewagon FLU full of traditional Irish songs covers the answer would be: YES, OF COURSE.

Anarchitecture is Almost done. We're looking at August to finally release it and are hosting an album cover art contest on our facebook page all through July.

We really wanted to get you involved in creating this album and we also really wanted the album to be a fundraiser for grassroots organizing. But with so many amazing artists and important campaigns to choose from we were having trouble picking. So we decided to open it up and let you decide.

For the entire month of July we'll be accepting submissions of original artwork for the album cover through our Facebook page. Each artist is required to list a community group, campaign, or grassroots movement that they support, along with a short description of their work. At the end of the month, we'll sit down and go through the finalists and pick our album cover. The group associated with the winning artist's work will receive 25% of our first month's album sales. And in the meantime, the gallery of entries and groups is a great way to check out what your neighbors are working on and maybe find out about cool campaigns or groups that you want to get involved with and support.

If you're an artist we'd love for you to enter. If you have friends who are artists we'd love for you to tell them about it. If you're involved in community organizing to make the world a better place (and we hope you are) we'd love to see your group listed. In other words: We need YOU, to make this a success.

Several years of playing the music they love, travelling around every possible corner of the world, both by themselves and with bigger acts such as The Misfits ( European Invasion Tour 2010 ) have made them into one of the popular Celtic/Folk/Punk bandsnof today. Here are two announcements;

The band's sound is not so far from popular bands such as Dropkick Murphys, Flogging Molly and The Pogues.

SIR REG's latest tour of Denmark, Germany & France in May, was a great success and spread the word further through Europe ...

After that tour it was time for SIR REG to make a brand new release. A handful of restless souls stepped into the studio for the recording of their second album.On the 14th of October 2011 the album will, through Heptown Records, have a world wide release and the never ending hunger of travelling the world is about to begin...

Melbourne Celtic Punk band The Ramshackle Army is proud to announce that they have secured a deal with Japanese label Uncle Owen for the distribution of their debut independent EP “Life Lessons and Drunken Sessions”.

Uncle Owen, based in Tokyo, specialise in Celtic Folk Punk from around the world and distribute some of the scene’s best known bands including The Dreadnoughts, Paddy and The Rats, Greenland Whalefishers and The Mighty Regis.

No stranger to the Australian Celtic and Folk Punk scene, Uncle Owen are currently distributing releases by local acts The Barons of Tang, The Currency, Mutiny and The Rumjacks.

“Life Lessons and Drunken Sessions” was recorded at 3 Phase in Brunswick, VIC. by Sam Johnson (Mindsnare, Toe to Toe, A Death in The Family, House Vs Hurricane) and mastered at Blasting Room, Fort Collins, Colorado by Jason Livermore (Rise Against, A Wilhelm Scream). The EP is the first attempt at transferring the energy of The Ramshackle Army live show to recorded format and includes the full range of punk and folk influences which the band have drawn on throughout the writing process.

For The Ramshackle Army, a band who began playing shows a short 12 months ago, this is the first such agreement struck with an international label. The band is excited to begin their push beyond Australian waters and into the wider world.The CD will be distributed in Japan both instore and online at Uncle Owen’s Website

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

We're proud to announce that our new album with June Tabor, "Ragged Kingdom", will be released by Topic Records in UK and world wide, and by Westpark Music in Western Europe, on Monday September 19.

Why with June? Because she is one of the greatest singers and interpreters of songs in England; because we performed a couple of songs together at fRoots Magazine's 30th birthday party at The Roundhouse in London last year, and felt the buzz of something special all over again; and because the mad idea of doing a follow-up album to 1990's "Freedom & Rain" 21 years later just appealed to us!

You can hear a track on Folk On 2 on BBC Radio 2 starting at 7.00pm (UK time) on Wednesday 22 June, or via the BBC's iPlayer at any time in the following 7 days at

The Tartan Hearts are a band from Calgary that was born in 2000 from the ashes of No Coast Hardcore. Between 2005 and 2010 The Tartan Hearts were active and shared the stage with bands such as The McGillicuddys, The Real McKenzies or Farler's Fury. The band broke-up because two members left to live in another town.

The Tartan Hearts opened for The Real McKenzies last Saint Patrick's Day in Calgary. This is the show.

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Firstly, sorry it's taken us so long to add any new content to the ReverbNation page and to send out an email...... but we have now added 4 new songs - 3 brand new songs,

'Rom Com','Radio''Dead and Gone'

and we have also re-recorded 'Promised Land'.

Now, while these are not the final mixes that will be used on the next album they are, we feel, well worth a listen as they are 4 very different songs all of which capture the very essence of Seven Little Sisters.

We also want to say a BIG "Thank You" to everyone that has joined our page / mailing list in the last year. It's nice to see a steady flow of great singer / song writers joining us from across the Atlantic.... A region that influences our musical style, we love Bluegrass, Cajun, Alt. Country etc and we would really love to come over and play some gigs in America & Canada but we've not yet had the chance - maybe next year, who knows!! (if anyone has any tips on booking gigs in America / Canada or knows of any booking angents worth contacting then please do let us know).

Well, we hope you enjoy the new songs - and, as always, feel free to leave us a comment.

The year 2010 was good to us - new line up new songs...Now we are ready to head into 2011 - our 6th year! The Buccaneers are going to give evidence again that they have established as one of Europe’s leading punk – folk/country – rock bands. And after a few changes their new line-up fits best for this campaign with their new guitar players Chowie and Arlyn, an ex-pat from Canada.

Long ago they outgrew the status o’ being just a pub –band! The band played several tours, i.e. with Far From Finished, Angel City Outcasts, Real McKenzies, The Porters, Texas Terrie Bomb, The Mahones , The Argies, Loaded, The Business, etc., and on festivals, i.e. Roisstall-Festival, Huntenpop-Festival (NL), Woidmen Open Air, Kaff Rock Open Air, Irish-Punk-Bash-Festival (IT), KSC-Football-Club-Festival, St. Pauli-FC-Fans-Festival, etc.

Last but not least you have to say The Buccaneers is one of Europe’s hardest working bands ever and the result of its mixture of Rock, Folk and Punkrock is an awesome cocktail of melodies, chants, sing-a-longs and catchy riffs!

During the last years the band toured relentlessly over Europe and made themself a name as one of the best live-acts around!

"Skattish was in existence between the years of 1997-2003. It was formed by a group of middle school friends and went on to become a somewhat semi-popular local high school band in the Tucson area. The band ceased to exist at the end of the summer of 2003 following a brief southwest tour and the release of their self-produced EP and only full-length album entitled "Stealing Free Stuff" due to 3 of the 5 members leaving for college out of state."

"Skattish began on a cold spring morning. A bunch of kids, with a bunch of dreams. When Skattish began its original memebers were Nolan, David, Lev, and Mark (now gone). The original fab 4 played a song for a school project entitled "die, ceaser, die." This original quick-moving number reached number two on the charts, and cause quite a stir around the tucson community.But as time went by, the band evolved. Carter joined and added the vocals and guitar playing. Then Nathan joined, we are still not sure what he does, but whatever he does he does it quite fair. Then we figured, hey, we wanna play ska, so lets get a horn or two. So we recruited the local saxophone prodigy Sarah. Soon afterwards Sarah had a fall out with the band, and lev moved. We moved on though and recruited 4 new members Justin, Ben, Jason and Jim. With our new line up we began to play gigs through out Tucson and the world. Time went by as it does, and more changes in line-up evolved. Justin was last sighted somewhere deep in the african congo( that or it was just a monkey), and Jason seperated from the band for a career in pro baseball. But there's more! . . . more? . . . much more! We found the mysterious Jose Ole playing a trumpet outside a bullring in Spain during our european tour. We had Ben playin the guitar, Dave busting rhymes and rockin the bagpipes, Nolan was a trombonin and trainin for the NBA, Jim was utilizing his 4 string bass cleff guitar, Jose was a trupetin for los toros, but there was no drumin to be found, a world wide search for a drummer and some jello was done. After many painstaking weeks, Andrew the boy wonder was found. We signed with some homies in phoenix that go by the name of MAD PLAID RECORDS, and our shows rock more then ever, they are some of the radest around according to rolling stones magazine. We have gone through bad times. But Skattish will forever go on. Skattish shall never parish."

"Starting in late 2001, Tartanic began touring the United States branching out from Texas and in their current season in 2008, have been gracing stages in Chicago, Detroit, Kansas City, Phoenix, Albuquerque, Dallas, San Antonio, and other cities in Southern California, Oklahoma, Missouri, Arizona, Iowa, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin. Adrian Walter, the drummer, dancer and front man of the group started in 1996 after attending the University of Houston's School of Theatre. Falling into the company of some musicians who played bagpipes--that's right--bagpipes after touring and co-founding a dance troupe, the idea of incorporating music and dance with a humorous and theatrical twist seemed natural. Mixing bagpipe classics like "Amazing Grace" with "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" and "Smoke on the Water" the act acquired quite a following. As Becca Bacon Martin of the Morning News in Northwest Arkansas wrote in article from a January performance in Eureka Springs, "It's like a rock ‘n’ roll unplugged bagpipe theater show without a plot,[Tartanic] is a fully audience-integrated show that goes against the usual band formula.” Dressed in kilts and sunglasses, Tartanic gives its audiences a barrage of sound from not one but TWO Highland Bagpipes, and three percussionists. Imagine one dancer, six drums, six drones, 18 notes, fast fingers, high comedy, flying bagpipes, taste-defying stunts and scorching hot music played at over 120 beats per minute with driving speed and high-volume, all brought to you by five men without pants. Together, the sound is impenetrable. With the skills of not one, but two, award-winning bagpipers, Tartanic is a force to be reckoned with. The future looks very bright for Tartanic, as two new albums are set to be released in 2008, and the combined talents of all the members find new expressions in new material in both the studio and onstage. Tartanic sails strongly with the wind at their back, and the music always at high tide.

"ICEWAGON FLU is one of the most original bands to come on to the music scene in years. Since 2001 the band has created a fun mixture of genre bending world music pop, which has solidified a growing cult following and insured a place in Indy rock. While releasing four full length studio albums, one EP, included on five compilations, and six film soundtracks, The FLU has toured all over the east coast with bands as far reaching as Black 47, Eric Burden and The Animals, Carbon Leaf, Flogging Molly, Scythian, and Roger McGuinn."

I love them. Even if we are at the end of June, I can say that Celkilt are the newcomer of the year. This five piece band from France is one of the best Celtic rock bands that I have listened to in the last months. A great fiddler (always a girl!), an excellent flutists/piper, an awesome rhythm section and a fantastic guitarist who also writes the lyrics.

Celkilt joined in 2010. In January 2011 they recorded this 6 track EP that was already available in March. Five songs and a set of tunes, all of them written by the band. Neither DKM, nor Pogues/Flogging Molly obvious influences. I guess that Celkilt enjoy these bands, but they don’t try to copy them. I would say that some arrangements could be filed together with Scottish bands such as The Silencers, or even German bands such as Paddy Goes to Holyhead or The Seer. Yes, I feel that there is a Scottish epic feeling all over the EP.

The first three tracks from the EP are maybe harder than the last three tracks. But every single song is worth hearing. Although the band is young, they know how they want to sound..

Maybe the Celtic punk/rock from France has found its reference: Celkilt. The Celtic rock fans that are looking for fun and excellent musicianship must be happy now. Apart from Celtas Cortos and Scrum, they can also enjoy Celkilt. When they have to vote for the best bands/recordings of 2011, I feel that they will add Celkilt to their lists.

Tracklist:

1 - Get the Hell Away 4:332 - Let Me out 2:443 - Jig It Up! 5:194 - The Same Old Frown 4:205 - The War in My Head 4:206 - Lay Me Down 5:25

"After many sleepless nights I, Palle, have decided to leave SIR REG. There are other priorities in my life atm such as family (2nd baby in July), personal economy, work and other music projects.

The timing is a bit weird, as we are in the middle of recording a superb album, planning int. tours, etc. I wish there were more time to do all of this and I will certainly regret my decision (already have).

As I've said to the other members, I can play the only show we have booked as of now at Ingbofestivalen, August 13th. After that I will stand in the crowd as a fan.

SIR REG is an awesome band and I wish them all success. It's sad to leave such a kick-ass band. Thank you guys/girl for all the good times!

To everyone who have been to our shows, supported us and liked our songs - Sláinte!

We have the sad anouncement that Mac Loud is leaving the band. We'd like to thank him for the 3 wonderful years he gave us and hope all the best for him in the future. We will post his comment.

30 May 2011

Statement of Mac Loud:

Dears fans, dear friends, Time has come for me to say goodbye.Due to problems in the band I decided to leave the Black Tartan Clan. I wish them all the best for the future....

As Mac Loud I always gave the best of myself and I thank you all for your support, loyalty and friendship. I hope you all will keep this in mind.I will not comment this choice of mine to avoid distorted informations.

Jun 29London, UK@The GarageThe Garage, London 29th June A one off intimate club show at London's famous The Garage - a chance to be a part of an intimate show and experience songs from the new album, Speed of Darkness, as well as a few old favourites. Doors open 7pm Over 14s only (under 16s must be accompanied by an adult). With your ticket, you can also pre - order of SPEED OF DARKNESS (MP3) Your digital download will be available from the Order Tracking area on release date: 30th May.

We wanted to send out one quick update about our upcoming shows in June and July.

We're very excited to be a part of this year's Irish Fair in Irvine on Saturday, June 18th and Sunday, June 19th. We will be performing from 2:30PM to 4:00PM both days.

In July we will be back at one of our regular residencies at Gallagher's in Huntington Beach on July 16th. We will also be performing at a brand new venue (for us), Nadine's Irish Mist in Sunset Beach on July 23rd. Both shows start at 9PM and go until last call.

In other Brick Top Blaggers news, we've recently been joined by two excellent musicians. Nolan is our new mandolin player and Mark is our new drummer. Please make sure to say "hello" to them at our future shows! They've brought a lot of great things to our sound and it's going to be a grand time as we head into this summer!!